


Two sets of footprints

by B0nk3rs



Series: Bored of Being Nameless [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Daemons, Gen, Medical Experimentation, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-21 19:29:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22235533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B0nk3rs/pseuds/B0nk3rs
Summary: There are eight daemons in the house but not everything without a soul doesn't have oneAnd sometimes things with souls, clearly don't.
Series: Bored of Being Nameless [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1373155
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: Crossovers and Fusion Fics





	1. Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes.... those without souls... are better

None of the others treats Grace like she's a real person. She steps gently in their wake, picks up their clothes and soothes them when they hurt each other but none of them treat her like she's got a point when she talks to them. They all nod, look at Dad if he's there and leave if he's not.

It's not fair.

"Are you crying again Number Two?" Three asks him, Cee meows at Bee from the floor. There's a weird look on Three's face; she's probably going to get them in trouble. 

"No!" he says, and then, "What do _you_ want?"

" _Wanted_ to know if you were done _sulking_. Guess not." She snaps.

Two turns his head away from Three like Dad does when he's done telling them what to do. Bee turns into a swallow and tucks his head under his wing.

Three's still looking at them funny when they leave. 

*

It's not as if he's scared of Mom because, despite the fact she can lift a tonne, she can't even raise her voice when they get in her way. Klaus, Dee, Five and Eee watch her as she frowns and cleans up the flour they threw all over the kitchen. Dad's lecturing the others on teamwork or else they might have to help her. 

Mom keeps looking at them while cleaning up. If Klaus was a better person he might help her out, but Mom isn't a person at all so it's not like he needs to bother.

Five pushes his way out of the kitchen, yanking Klaus into a race to the good bathroom. Behind them their daemons linger as Mom continues to clean up. Eee turns into a monkey, picks his brother up and vanishes after them.

*

Luther wishes Grace was human. With his siblings gone the only two people in the house are him and Dad and Dad's so busy Luther just ends up with Andromeda. And Pogo of course.

"Stop calling me that." His daemon chides from the bed. Ay has grown just as large as his human and disdains the names Luther tries to give him. It's not as if Ay needs a name, they never leave the house, but-

" _Luther_ ," hot air snags on the nape of his neck and he tries not to tense as the lion looms over him. "Luther."

"What."

A damp tongue combs roughly through his hair and heavy paws settle on his shoulders. He sighs but doesn't fight the grooming. Neither of them see the heeled shadow pause in the hall outside and move along.

*

Six doesn't trust the new nanny.

Grace is her name.

Seven says she's got powers too but Six isn't sure, she just feels like Dad even though she has a really soft voice like the last nanny. Six hasn't seen her daemon yet. 

Six isn't sure the new nanny has a daemon, Eff says the new nanny feels like furniture. 

But Two likes the new nanny, Two says she isn't furniture at all. Four says Nanny Mabel says she's a android. 

Nanny Mabel left them with Grace and she said she wouldn't so she's a liar. And neither Three or Five or _One_ even know what a android is so it's probably Four making up words again.

*

Allison wants to be like Mom. She's so pretty and graceful and smooth.

Allison feels like Klaus in comparison- or Vanya! Not cool at all. She throws herself on the bed next to Cee. Her daemon turns into a puppy and starts licking her face to cheer her up.

Cee is very cool. The puppy wriggles against her chest until she's looking Cee in the eyes. She turns into a kitten and blinks very slowly at Allison.

"It means 'I love you', Eee told me," her soul explains. Allison curls up around Cee and cradles her. She doesn't bother saying it back.

When the purr starts, it's low against her throat. 

This is definitely better than being like Grace. Mom doesn't have Cee.

*

Five doesn't understand why Dad didn't just make Grace a daemon.

Eve has turned into a bear next to him, holding Dolores and Manuel while Five reads Vanya's book again. Yesterday it started to snow. They can't remember if daemons like to imitate their species that much or not but a grizzly is ideal even if it leaves Five alone with just Dolores and Manuel for the winter.

"Why didn't she just make herself a daemon, it's not like Dad cared - we all knew what she was." 

"But why bother if she knew there was no point fooling us! It's not like she could have actually cared."

Eve, holding both the mannequin and her stuffed bird daemon, couldn't help but sigh.

*

When Vanya was little she used to be terrified of Grace. She could never forget the casual way the robot had turned her head back around to tell Vanya to eat her breakfast. If only Grace wasn't so obviously a robot Vanya might have been able to forget that terrible memory at some point. 

(She couldn't remember why Grace had had to turn her head back around but it was probably one of Five or Klaus' jokes.)

Growing up with that much surveillance had been hard though. The cameras were one thing, she usually just ignored those, but Grace... Ben used to say she was paranoid.

Vanya thought he didn't understand how fucked up it was to have your father watch you through a doll that dressed up like a 1950's model housewife. It was one of the more ridiculous things about her father, a strict man only capable of showing affection through a mothering doll.

The others had been so used to their _extraordinary_ lifestyle it was unlikely any of them had thought much about calling a robot Mom. Gee hadn't understood how Bee or Dee could let themselves touch her smooth skin, sure she felt like furniture but what if Grace had held on once, instead of just letting them clamber over her?

What if Grace had decided she wanted a soul of her own?

Not that she could of course. She wasn't even alive, not like Pogo, she couldn't want a soul. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Grace did have a soul it would be her charging area. None of them has ever sat there and they've never had any reason to. Still furniture but it's her furniture and she can do what she wants with it, she can't leave without it either


	2. Pogo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not everything without a soul is soulless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhhhhhhhhh  
> There's a bit of Pogo's backstory so :
> 
> Warning for experimentation on animals

"So, what is Pogo?" Ben asked sceptically. At his feet, Dee and Cee were curled up and purring.  
  
They were sharing a bottle of whiskey and a cigarette in the attic. Klaus on the window sill, Five and Eee on a crate above Ben, Allison making a pillow of their discarded jackets and Ben sat on the floor with Eff sat in his hair. They were two months from thirteen. Vanya was downstairs playing her violin, technically their lookout.  
  
"No," Klaus drew out his 'o' until Five kicked him.   
  
They all watched as he fumbled the cigarette right out of the window. Allison pinched Five's knee.  
  
"No," she said watching as Five's fingers glowed blue as he seemingly pulled a fresh cigarette out of thin air.  
  
Five swapped it for Ben's bottle of whiskey; Ben lit it, took a drag and let Allison steal it out of his hand as he exhaled smoke rings. Klaus pouted at them all from the window. 

Cee started purring louder and Eff leapt from Ben to the cuddle pile.  
  
"Nope!" Five agreed, "We all know he's a chimpanzee but most monkey's don't talk." 

  
*

  
Officially Pogo was an experiment, just like the rest of them. If they’d been adopted as children or had met Pogo later they would have respected him about as much as they tended to respect Luther or Mom when it came to missions.  
  
With a sort of pity.  
  
As it was, Pogo was their unofficial third parent, as close to an uncle as a monkey could get. In no terms but their own he was also the “fun” parent to Grace’s passive mothering and Reginald’s strict father. His lack of a daemon was only an issue to their nannies before Grace.

  
*

Every time they go out into public One can’t help but stare. There are people everywhere! All over the place! It’s so disorganised, he’s not really sure what to do. Not that he’s meant to do anything about the people all over the place, that’s Three’s job, but it’s strange.  
  
Some of the people don’t even look like they’re doing anything. Six said they’re “relaxing” which is another word for leisure time. But One is pretty sure Six is wrong because they’ve been on this rooftop for an hour now and some of the people have been here before them and there’s no way that’s all leisure time.  
  
When they get back home and after they debrief, One goes to downstairs to look for Pogo. Six waves and runs away with Eff ahead of him as soon as they leave Dad’s office, to find Three or Four probably. Three and Four haven’t been allowed on the roof mission yet.  
  
Five and Two are juggling in the library as he walks past and he can hear music- Seven is practising again.  
  
The shaky violin music gets louder as he gets closer to Pogo’s room. He stops with his hand on the doorframe. It’s loudest when he presses his ear to the door and he can’t suppress a frown.  
  
What’s Seven doing practising in Pogo’s room?  
  
Ay turns into a moth and flutters through the keyhole. Ay can see Gee as a cat on Pogo’s shoulder. Ay can see Seven jerking her bow this way and that on her violin.  
  
Ay crawls back through the keyhole to look at one. His face is scrunched up and his eyes are closed.  
  
One opens his eyes and looks at his daemon. Ay shifts into something soft and climbs his coat to nestle in his collar. “We can tell him about the chimpanzee we saw later” Ay whispers. They walk back up the corridor.

  
*

  
“I thought,” Vanya manages, “you were different.”  
  
It hurts. She hadn’t seen him much over the last few years, met him in cafes, he came round when she got her latest apartment, birthday calls.  
  
“Vany-“  
  
“You lied to us!” Over and over and over again. She’d had him in her home!  
  
“You knew!” George shrieks in tandem with her own voice.  
  
They tune out whatever else Pogo’s trying to say. It bears no consequence on them now, he could have said whatever he wanted when she left or the dozen other times he had the opportunity. He should have told her the truth!  
  
She pins him to the back wall where the stag’s antlers can properly display him. “Just as proud as a deer and just as cowardly,” her soul caws.  
  
George leads their way out of the crumbling academy. It fits, she thinks to herself, it fits. Of course he had no soul, a small part of her cries, he couldn’t help himself let alone them.  
  
George flies ahead of them as something new, something beautiful. He did this to me, to him, to us! She can’t help but wonder if George can hear the small part of her too.

  
*

When they were little they came to Pogo after the nannies because all of them preferred human contact over the strange thing that was Pogo. But nannies came and went and Pogo stayed.  
  
It was pretty much guaranteed that they slowly became used to his presence, no matter how alien it was.  
  
Dust gathers in the space.  
  
Humans are not the only ones with souls to display but most other species don’t need the jump to sapience to have them. Ironically there is something very inhuman about Homo sapiens and the metaphysical leash that consists of the daemon.  
  
That’s what makes his experiments so fascinating. If there is no consistent framework for them to build, will they act as everyone else with their daemons? Could they sense that Victoria was as alive as Grace?  
  
None of the children had noticed the way other people were tightly bound though they tended to avoid speaking to the daemons over each other. Tell a child they’re special and they’ll start to believe anything. Their initial and continued dismissal of Grace was interesting, he was sure most of them had forgotten their first years apart and yet they still instinctively shied away from the lack of daemon at her side.  
  
That Number Two had come to ignore the lack was, intriguing. B on the other hand strayed. He had yet to confirm if this was reflexive or an attempt to level the playing field. Several of the other daemons also stayed away from Grace.  
  
And Pogo… If there had ever been a more conclusive answer to the nature of humanity, his oldest experiment was it. One of thirteen, he’d been so sure the chimpanzee experiment was an utter failure. However, the similarities in their species proved that sapience wasn’t tied to the ability to conform to humanity’s definition of personhood. Interesting.  
  
Ultimately useless, but that was how most of his projects were turning out. This planet just didn’t make sense like it should. Grace gathers dust but Pogo doesn’t and who did the children turn to?

*

“He’s a chimpanzee.”  
  
Klaus did his best not to throw up. They’d seemingly landed in hell, a narrow corridor of doors that smelled like a stable with undertones of blood and the sounds of several animals breathing. There was no ghosts but that was worse. Suffering without death was always worse for Klaus.  
  
It was just him, Five and an unknown number of animals. Klaus tried not to gag on his next breath.  
  
“There’s so much dust in the air,” his smaller brother continued with hushed awe. He’d stepped away from Klaus like he hadn’t even felt the lack.  
  
“Five! Focus please.”  
  
“It’s incredible…”  
  
“ _Five_!” The smaller man turned to face him blankly. It was like the tone hadn’t even registered with him, he was just vacant.  
  
“Five, where are we?” He swallowed back more bile, “Where's Dee? Where’s _Eve_?”  
  
For a moment it seemed like Five was going to respond. He reached out to Klaus with one hand and opened a door with another. They both peered in to see a chimpanzee strapped to a table in a mouldering room. It was angled so that it couldn’t see them but instead faced a small screen with flashing images. There was a pair of earmuffs secured to the chimpanzee’s head and to the metal table it was on. As they watched it writhed silently and something pulsed along to the panicked breathing they could hear from it. It had been gagged with it’s mouth open and frothy spittle had dripped down and matted it’s fur.  
  
No daemons in the room, just the unnatural pulse. Klaus did gag then, ripping away from Five with a little gasp to heave into the empty corridor.  
  
“He’s just a chimpanzee, Klaus.” Five said again in the same tone.

*

The Apocalypse had been much brighter than Allison expected, ash, dust, fire and sun. Cee hadn't needed to face the sun head-on, hadn't had to worry about the way Allison sickened as time went on (though of course she had), hadn't needed to eat.

Why was she thinking about this now?

"Allison!"

"Ms Hargreeves look this way please!"

"Rumour, look over here!"

Flashing lights and paparazzi. Allison couldn't help but turn her face so they got her good side. Cee perched in her hair like she hadn't just drawn blood to get Allison out of her flashback.

She wasn't even hungry.

"That's enough." Their father snapped and the Umbrella Academy turned on their right heel to get to the cars. Their daemons, if they hadn't already been, shifted to birds in unison leaving the crowds to coo in delight.

Pogo was waiting for them in the first car. He hadn't done this in the first timeline, but this time around he didn't need to hide. There was still no daemon at his side but here it had been known for decades that that was impossible.

Klaus started chattering to him as soon as the door closed. Dee sat limply in his lap. 

Allison ignored Luther and Diego to just watch Pogo as he drove them home. In this timeline he was much happier than he had been in theirs- his fur was glossy, he didn't bother to stand up like they did anymore. Allison had never really thought any of that had bothered him before.

Pretending to be human. Like the rest of them didn't do the same.

Sun and ash falling like snow.

"-llison?" Cee dug a talon into her throat this time. Pogo was watching her in the mirror, looking so concerned.

Did the other Allison appreciate that concern?

"I'm just tired," she whined, "Do you know what we're having for dinner?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eh, don't know where the last two came from but they're not terrible i guess
> 
> AU where after the show Allison got stuck in the apocalypse, and now they're in a different timeline

**Author's Note:**

> not trying to say that you will always be the kid your parents thought you were but the hargreeves have never really grown past their childhoods so their daemons (except five's but yeah) never learned to redefine themselves. and Five and Ben just can't grow up


End file.
